BPCF 2019 - XIV Београдски фестивал проблемског шаха 2019.

Belgrade Internet Tournaments 2019

Group C – fairy hs#3, Protean chess

Judge:
Petko Petkov, International Judge

Director:
Marko Ložajić

This year's BIT tournament (section C) is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the death of legendary grandmaster Nenad Petrović. I am very pleased to note that the level of the tournament is high; a number of very interesting problems have been presented, which will certainly stimulate future work on this theme!

Nenad Petrović

(7th Sep 1907 – 9th Nov 1989)

Thanks to all the participants, and congratulations to the winners!

The theme of this tournament was:The fairy conditions Protean Chess or Frankfurt Chess, presented in HS#3 with exactly 2 solutions.

Above all, I must point out that these two conditions are almost identical, and the general requirement for them is: "When a piece captures (King included), it takes the nature of the captured unit (without changing colour). A King capturing becomes a royal unit". (Nowadays this definition exists in WinChloe and the condition is denoted by the French name Francfort).

In fact, this is the exact definition of Frankfurter Chess, first introduced by the inventors Albert Heinrich Kniest & John Niemann in The Fairy Chess Review, Vol. 7, Nr. 1, VIII / 1948. The name of the condition, however, was coined by Paul Schlensker.

The predecessor of Protean Chess is the Protean piece, also defined by A. H. Kniest around 1940 in Unsere Schachwelt, but historically it is not known when exactly the Protean Chess condition was established.

The difference between Frankfurter Chess and Protean Chess is the following: If an enemy pawn is captured in Protean Chess the new pawn on the same square (with a changed color) moves in the direction of the captured pawn. In Frankfurter Chess, of course, this strange rule is missing (nowadays Protean Chess exists in Popeye). When there are no pawn captures or these captures have no thematic effect and do not affect the correctness of the problem, we can assume that the two conditions are the same. In this case, the author may indicate below the diagram what condition he wishes.

For the sake of clarity, I decided to place the following additional symbols after the solutions of the problems, using the first letters of the program names Popeye (P) and WinChloe (W): (P + W) means that it is possible to use either of the two conditions; (P) means that only Protean Chess is used; (W) means that only Frankfurter Chess is used.

From the tournament director I received 24 originals by 18 authors from 11 countries. I eliminated from the tournament on various grounds the following problems: No: 17, 21, 24 these problems do not meet the regulation as they have twins or set-play. No 4 - Not optimal construction. It is easily possible to get a position with 2 pieces less if you move the starting position with one vertical to the right. No 11 - The wBc1 is superfluous in the solution after 1.g8 = Q.

I suggest the following ranking

Thematic condition

HS#3, 2 solutions, Protean Chess

No other fairy conditions or fairy pieces are allowed, except royal pieces (only one for each side!): Royal Queen (rQ), Royal Rook (rR), Royal Bishop (rB), Royal Knight (rS) and Royal Pawn (rP). These royal pieces may be present in the initial position (example 2) or may appear during the play. Royal Pawn promotions are allowed. "Supernumerary" pieces in initial position (e.g. 2 white Queens, 3 white Bishops, 3bR, 4 bS, etc...) are permitted if this form is thematically necessary for the problem.

Protean Chess: When a piece (King included) captures, it takes the nature of the captured unit (without changing color). A King capturing becomes a royal unit.

Royal Piece: Piece that executes a function of the King on the board: it becomes object of check and mate.

Example 1

Petko PETKOV

Original

hs#3

2.1.1.1.1.1

(6+9)

Protean chess

*** 1.Rc1 Sc5 2.Rxc5=S Sb6
3.Se6+ Bxe6=S# 1.f6 Bg7 2.fxg7=B Be6
3.Bf6+ Sxf6=B#

Thematic sacrifices of Sa6 & Bf8, reciprocal play of Sd7 & Bd5 exchanging their nature: B becomes S and S becomes B

Example 2

Petko PETKOV

Original

hs#3

2.1.1.1.1.1

(2+3)

Protean chess

Royal Pf5

*** 1.Sd2 Se1 2.Kxe1=rS Qe4+
3.Sxe4=Q+ fxe4=rQ# 1.Se5 Sg1 2.Kxg1=rS Qg4+
3.Sxg4=Q+ fxg4=rQ#

Multiple thematic sacrifices lead to surprising Ideal Echo-mates. Tanagra form.

Winners

Ofer Comay

Ivo Tominić

Kostas Prentos

Mario Parrinello

Participants

Themis Argirakopoulos – GRE (22)
S.K. Balasubramanian – IND (2*,15)
Ofer Comay – ISR (1)
Vlaicu Crisan - ROU (2*)
Borislav Gadjanski – SRB (16)
Eric Huber – ROU (17,24)
Igor Kochulov – RUS (3,9)
Juraj Lörinc – SVK (4,10)
Manikumar S – IND (13,14)
Luis Miguel Martín – ESP (18)
Miodrag Mladenović – SRB (19)
Karol Mlynka – SVK (5,11)
Mario Parrinello – ITA (6)
Kostas Prentos – USA (7)
Sergej Smotrov– RUS (20)
Viktor Syzozenko – UKR (21)
Ivo Tominić – CRO (23)
Aleksandr Tyunin – RUS (8,12)

18 names

from 11 countries

BPCF2019C - Award

1st Prize

Ofer COMAY, ISR

hs#3

2 sol.

(8+9)

Protean Chess

FEN: 4Nk2/8/1p6/2b3p1/1P1q1r2/1B4p1/2nPRPP1/2Kn4

(C+ by Popeye + WinChloe)

2nd Prize

Ivo TOMINIĆ, CRO

hs#3

2 sol.

(6+4)

Protean Chess

FEN: 1B3N2/5R2/5b1P/3B1k2/8/5bK1/7r/8

(C+ by Popeye + WinChloe)

3rd Prize

Kostas PRENTOS, USA

hs#3

2 sol.

(5+3)

Protean Chess

FEN: k7/P7/K2R4/Q7/2B2n2/8/8/1b6

(C+ by Popeye + WinChloe)

Spec. Prize

Mario PARRINELLO, ITA

hs#3

2 sol.

(5+5)

Protean Chess

FEN: 8/2K5/2ppPP2/1N6/8/2b3N1/3kr3/8

(C+ by Popeye)

1st Hon. Mention

Borislav GADJANSKI, SRB

hs#3

2 sol.

(6+4)

Frankfurt Chess

FEN: 8/1R1P4/P1kr2Q1/3p2K1/7n/3N4/8/8

(C+ by WinChloe)

2nd Hon. Mention

Vlaicu CRISAN & S.K. BALASUBRAMANIAN, ROU/IND

h#3

2 sol.

(3+4)

Protean Chess

Royal Sd4

FEN: 8/3bR3/8/7q/3N4/k7/5r2/6B1

(C+ by Popeye + WinChloe)

3rd Hon. Mention

Luis Miguel MARTÍN, ESP

hs#3

2 sol.

(7+6)

Protean Chess

FEN: B7/kP1b4/6RP/6Kn/1b3R2/2B5/4r3/7r

(C+ by Popeye + WinChloe)

Commendation

Juraj LÖRINC, SVK

hs#3

2 sol.

(3+7)

Frankfurt Chess

FEN: 1RR5/7k/6pp/8/1pp5/8/bKn5/8

(C+ by WinChloe)

Commendation

Karol MLYNKA, SVK

hs#3

2 sol.

(3+1)

Protean Chess

Royal Pg2, Ph2

FEN: 8/8/8/8/8/6R1/6Pp/3B4

(C+ by Popeye + WinChloe)

Site author: Borislav Gadjanski